ARTIST TALK: Zahra Almajidi on “Casting The Net”

Don’t miss your opportunity to hear from fine artist and metalsmith Zahra Almajidi on “Casting The Net,” her debut solo exhibition on view on view during Detroit Month of Design.

Her exhibition flows between spaces of constructed memory and contradictory materiality, functioning as a speculative act of world-building. Rather than focusing on a past that has been systematically erased, Almajidi’s body of work investigates the following:

How does one build upon the design and craft traditions of ancestors to forge a connection to displaced culture and traditions?  

ABOUT ZAHRA ALMAJIDI

Utilizing both traditional metalsmithing techniques and CAD/CAM processes, Almajidi’s work explores the ways in which objects and adornment allow displaced people to continue to uphold and practice their craft traditions while living in the diaspora. She has worked at several art fabrication spaces in Metro Detroit including Wayne State University where she received her BFA in Metalsmithing, Lawrence Technological University where she briefly served as shop co-manager, and Cranbrook Academy of Art where she received her MFA in Metalsmithing and was awarded the Cranbrook Art Director’s fellowship and the Director’s Award.

She has taken part in the 2021 Incubator Residency program at Talking Dolls Detroit, the Artist + Residents Program at the Arab American National Museum in 2021, and the Winter Residency program at Penland School of Craft in 2024. She is the Central Materials Lab Coordinator at Cranbrook Academy of Art, and is dedicated to maintaining an active studio practice and regularly exhibits work.